Field Day – July 2018

It was the summer Tynemouth Amateur Radio Club Field Day, one of a few we have planned over the summer, which in fact so far is proving to a proper corker of an English summer

There were 6 vehicles and 7 members present in total and an amazing array of kit and antennas ! Everything from an 80m Doublet to a 2m Beam was present and almost everything in between.

I was operating with my friend Carl Gorse (2E0HPI) using the DXCommander vertical antenna which I find is an excellent all round vertical that covers multiple bands. Initially we set out to use my TS590SG which turned out to be a no go at anything over 10 watts as the car 12v system just could not provide the current and the radio simply shut down each time TX over 10 watts was used.. Luckily ! I had my trusty KX 3 and LifePO battery box at hand which I normally take on portable ops with Carl so we reverted to that and blasted out our mighty 15 watts LOL !!

We did well with a total of around 18 in the log, mainly from Europe but we had some great craic in the sun, eating sandwiches and talking radio with the other members, I took along my restored WWI Lancaster bomber radio, a marconi R115A receiver so we could listen to AM broadcast radio just for some entertainment !